Ruth Hope, PLAN International Reproductive Health Advisor, delivers a statement on children and HIV/AIDS at the United Nations and is interviewed by the Voice of America

Childreach
Sunday, 1 April 2001

The United Nations General Assembly will convene a Special Session on HIV/AIDS from June 25 to 27, 2001 in New York. The goal of the Special Session is to intensify international action to fight the epidemic and mobilize needed resources. At the meeting governments are expected to agree on a Declaration of Commitment that will outline priority areas where stronger action must be taken. Concrete targets for action to fight the AIDS pandemic will build on goals adopted at previous United Nations forums. The Declaration of Commitment is currently being developed through a series of informal consultations among members of governments, AIDS activists and private sector partners.

During the first-round of open-ended informal consultations (New York from February 26 to March 2) for the Special Session on AIDS, Ruth Hope - Reproductive Health Advisor for PLAN International - delivered a statement on Children, Young Adults and Prevention. On March 12 the Voice of America did an interview with Ruth Hope on adolescents and HIV/AIDS. What follows is a summarized version of her intervention at the United Nations.

Young people are at the center of the HIV/AIDS pandemic with the majority of new infections in the 15-24 year age group. Although young people comprise only 20% of the population in Africa, 60% of new HIV infections are among 15-24 year olds, with girls out numbering boys by two to one.

Adolescence is commonly a time for experimentation and risk-taking, often with little regard for possible consequences. Peer influences on young people press them to adopt life styles and behaviors that identify them with their social network. Often young people tend not to perceive their own actions as affecting their health or they discount the risk of becoming ill or dying in the future against the value of satisfying their immediate needs.

Sexual and reproductive health information and services are generally not available to young, unmarried people. Providers of services for older, married people can be judgmental, and critical of sexually active youngsters. Leaders and parents often mistakenly believe that sexual health education leads to earlier or increased sexual activity.

In many cultures, girls are taught to be submissive and subservient to men. These social and sexual inequalities promulgated during childhood and adolescence, deprive women of the right to refuse to have sex or negotiate safer sex, such as condom use. Violence against women is widely condoned and sexual coercion underlies many young women's sexual experiences.

Children have increased vulnerability to HIV infection as a result of the death of a parent or both parents. Inheritance stealing by relatives of men, who die, increases widows' and their children's vulnerability and likelihood of infection with HIV.

There is an urgent need to reach out to children and young people using methods that effectively empower them to be the agents of change for their own and their communities' good health and development. Behavior change efforts need to involve parents, teachers and caregivers, and faith-based leaders influential in society. Community capacity to respond to AIDS must also be enhanced. This is the ultimate development goal, a process that requires long-term commitment by governments and development agencies.

In all our endeavors to curb the epidemic, young people must be empowered to adopt responsible and healthy behaviors. This approach must include information about sexuality and sexual health, the development of life skills, livelihoods and economic opportunities, as well as programs that address social and sexual inequalities.

Proposed Strategies

- Address the root causes of vulnerability to HIV/AIDS including economic and gender issues.

- Broaden HIV/AIDS education to include discussion of sexuality, relationships and gender roles. Promote a dialogue between young people and adults on these subjects.

- Involve young people and people living with AIDS in program design, implementation and monitoring, and policy-making.

- Develop a range of young peoples' sexual and reproductive health services from youth-friendly through youth-focused to youth-determined.

- Promote increased demand and supply for information on HIV, AIDS and sexually transmitted infections.

- Promote models for social mobilization that facilitate identification and modification of cultural practices and behaviors that increase transmission of HIV.

- Engage faith-based organizations to promote awareness and healthy protective behavior initiatives.

- Encourage strategies that are empowering of healthy behavior across society rather than telling young people to 'just say no to sex'.

- Address mother-to-child transmission including optimal antenatal services linked with HIV prevention, care and support services; voluntary confidential counseling and testing (VCT) services; promotion of breast feeding including use of condoms while breast feeding; appropriate obstetrical practices; family planning counseling and services; broad HIV awareness and stigma reduction.

The second-round of open-ended informal consultations in anticipation of the Special Session will be held in NYC from May 21 to 25. For further information see www.un.org/ga/aids.

For more information, or to contact Childreach, see their website at: www.childreach.org